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tv   ABC 7 Morning News  ABC  September 14, 2010 5:00am-6:00am PST

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breaking news. imprisoned hiker and cal graduate sarah shore has been released from prison in iran this morning. >> i'm terry mcsweeney live in san bruno where the people chased out of their homes by last week's explosion and fire are demanding answers. they're getting answers but wondering just how accurate they are. >> if pg&e doesn't have enough fire coverage to foot the bill, the customers could be on the hook to pay. i'm theresa garcia live in san bruno. that is because of a new bilk considered by state regulators. >> and is it a hoax or a problem? muni prepares for the possibility of a massive drivers sickout and delays for passengers today. >> good morning. starting with cloudy skies. temperatures in the 50s across the bay area but we will see a little warm-up today. >> a few minor hiccups early this morning but all have cleared. we're still off to a good start. live shot at the toll plaza
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showing no delays. >> good morning at 6:00 on this tuesday. we have a lot of developing news for you. thanks for joining us. i'm kristen sze. >> i'm eric thomas. let's get to it. forgot my own name. late and breaking news following all morning. imprisoned hiker and cal graduate sarah shore released from prison. jenelle, tell us more. >> this is such great news. just came down in the past hour. american sarah shore has been released for more than a year in prison. those closest to her expected something to happen today but basically this release out of the blue. her family didn't even have a heads up. we did get a statement from a state women rights organization saying they're feeling sad that sarah has to leave her fiancee shane and best friend josh. they're still in prison, that's in iran. but, of course, this is great news that sarah shore has been released. the three u.s. berkeley
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graduates captured in july 2009 after crossing the border between northern iraq and iran. iran accuses the three of spying and illegally entering the country. the family insists they were hiking and entered the country accidentally. they had been helping the u.s. negotiate her release. a judge decided to release shored because of her medical consider. her mother says the 32-year-old has a precancerous cervical condition and a lump in her breast. iran had been demanding $500,000 bail in order for her release. we hear a bail was paid. no word who put up that money. no word if that bail was reduced. but we are receiving word that some payment was made. a bail was paid. of course, we'll be following the story all morning. and we will of course bring you the latest updates but, again, sarah short has been released after nearly a year, over a year
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in a iranian prison. back to you guys. >> jenelle, thanks a lot. the san mateo coroner will give us an update on the victims of the san bruno fire and dozens of residents are wondering what happens next. after an emotional tour of the neighborhood and a town hall meeting last night. terry mcsweeney is live in the crestmore area. terry? >> the death toll now is four. the coroner expected to update that number and it could go up as several people are still missing. last night another town hall meeting here at the church of the highlands in san bruno. a couple hundred people showing up for that and questioning the wisdom of going back into their neighborhood even though officials are saying you can go back into your homes. many homes still standing. congresswoman jackie spear was there to offer assurances that some people say the problem that caused all this is still there. >> the truth of the matter is, this kind of an explosion is extremely rare. it's happened maybe two times in
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the country. >> it's still running through the neighborhood, near my house. there are areas of the pipe that you can't access. >> of course, some people have no home to return to, and they were given a tour yesterday of what remains of their homes. some homes have been tagged for demolition they're so far gone. other homes have already been demolished by thursday's pipe breaking. the explosion and the fire that occurred following that. pg&e is saying that the gas pipeline, they received no reports of anybody reporting any kind of smell of natural gas in that area in the days or weeks ahead of time. they have checked their records. it's just not there. but a number of residents say in fact there were reports filed and one man says he saw pg&e crews out there two days before the blast with a wand looking for natural gas. therefore, something prompted them to go out to those
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neighborhoods. pg&e says it just didn't happen. terry mcsweeney, abc 7 news. >> terry, thank you very much. it's 6:05 now let's make it. federal investigators are focusing on two key areas of concern as they examine the pipe. first, that it has a long seam where it was welded together and may have been susceptible to corrosion. they found a variety of small pieces called puffs, each individually welded in place to help the pipe make a dip in the road. a microscopic examination will look for an answer. >> for example, a fatigue fracture where the pressurezation dents it back and forth until it breaks. or was it a fracture from impact from excavation. >> pg&e is now handing out checks for expenses not covered by insurance. people in the affected areas of
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san bruno will get payments of $15,000, $25,000 or $50,000 depending how much damage their homes sustained. pg&e is giving $30 million to the city of san bruno for responding to the damage. >> pg&e reportedly has a billion dollars in insurance to pay claims for this disaster but customers will be stuck for the bill for future disasters if the bill backed by the utility makes it through the state's public utility commission. theresa garcia is live in san bruno to tell us more about this bill. >> the frustrating things for customers is that those who don't even live here near the san bruno gas line disaster could eventually have to help pay for part of the cost, and this is even though pg&e is the liable party. the problem is that if it doesn't have enough insurance coverage, that could trigger a rate increase. so today state regulators will begin reviewing a proposal that would require customers to pay all costs of the fire that
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exceed the utility's insurance coverage. the current rules cover a rate increase but now the public utilities commission can veto and force shareholders to pay the bill. this new proposal would require the rate increase to charge customers for the cost not covered by fire insurance pg&e is backing this proposal which was first introduced last year by san diego gas and electric. that was in response to massive wild fires in san diego county in 2007. and what that utility company is saying plus pg&e and many others is that the change is needed because disaster insurance is becoming so much more expensive and difficult to get. of course, you've got opponents out there saying this unfairly puts the burden on the rates of customers, not the shareholders. and that also increases the risk of fires by reducing incentives for utilities to actually maintain safe conditions of their facilities. here in the san bruno disaster, pg&e will be liable for up to its insurance limit which is
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about a billion dollars and they are saying that they think most of the costs will be covered. that remains to be seen. so unsure whether it would trigger a rate increases in this san bruno fire but the puc will vote on it by next spring or summer. theresa garcia, abc 7 news. >> thanks a lot. 6:08. muni delays are possible in san francisco today which could see the start of a rumored sick-out by operators. the union denies calling the sick-out today through friday to protest work changes to schedules and for workers to pay for their parking. but a flier from an unidentified source was circulating around the city and the transit agency is taking no chances changing sick policy before muni operators need to show a doctor's note only after calling in six five straight days. now they have to show a note after just one day. >> time to look at the weather on this tuesday morning. a little warm-up, you think?
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>> might be nice considering we're starting out pretty low. lisa. >> a lot of low clouds and fog. a strong onshore push yesterday. that's going to switch to a moderate onshore push. sunshine sooner and a bit of a warm-up for the next couple days. 58, mountain view clouds in livermore. cloudy for everyone except out by the delta. a southwesterly wind by 20. a graduate warm-up away from the coast and rain changes coming our way by friday. by 11:00, a couple patches of fog. no real changes there, below normal in the city but 67 in oakland coming up a few degrees. 78 concord, 70 palo alto, 75 santa rosa. cloudy this morning and 66 in santa cruz.
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>> good morning, lisa, everyone. no delays at the bay bridge toll plaza. you have to look out for the potential muni delays but so far so good. all these freeways left on 80, westbound 580, even northbound 880 heading towards the maze and no accidents to slow you down. head over to the san mateo bridge this morning. it's still great. the drive time is 14 minutes as you make your way westbound from 880 to 101. and 101 looks good along the peninsula, 880 fine along the east bay as well. a final shot of the golden gate bridge. traffic out of the north bay. delay-free as you make your way to san rafael, novato and san francisco. eric, kristen. >> thank you very much. it's 6:10. >> the latest on the push for
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peace in the middle east. what secretary of state hillary clinton has convened this morning. >> the announcement that will >> the announcement that will bring
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good morning on this tuesday. let's take a live look, a shot of mount diablo, pre-sunrise. and it's gorgeous out there. we have a few clouds but we're going to see the sun so we'll talk to lisa argen about what our temperatures will be and frances checks out your traffic coming up. >> right now this news for you. within the last two hours, secretary of state hillary clinton has convened a new round
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of israel palestinian peace talks in egypt. she arrived in an egyptian resort town and met with the president. clinton sat down with israeli prime minister and palestinian president. he wants to attack the most immediate dispute, soon to expire new construction for israeli settlers in the west bank. they suggested some of the strengths be lifted. >> celebrating the return of american honda motor company. last october they broke ground on a site to import cars from japan at the port. it brings hundreds of jobs. the first shipment arrived in april. the city of richmond will highlight the port of enttry project today which is designed to generate $85 million to the local economy the next 15 years. >> in newly released test scores known as the academic performance index.
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but they still lag behind the rest of the country. the state's overall score rose 13 points over last year allowing 567 schools to get federal fund are for program improvement. 46% of schools statewide reached four of 800. half of elementary students made the mark but only 25% of high schools reached it. high school administrators say that's because the emphasis has been on younger students. >> starting to see the gains at the middle school level. we're hopeful we'll see the gains at high school when this generation of students reaches that stage of education careers. >> the news is not all good. today's san jose mercury news points out more california schools missed the mark to get federal funding this year compared to last year. >> i'll tell you one of the benefits of the coolest weather we've been having instead of go outside to play. have the kids go to the library. nice afternoon.
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>> it was really breezy along the shoreline. backing up a little. isn't this great. from mount tam this morning, the sun was officially up or is going to be officially up in 40 minutes or so. we will be looking at more sunshine probably around 10:00 across the bay. that's because that sea breeze is going to back off a little. i'll show you why in a moment. 57 oakland, 53 menlo park. concord, 52 for you. we have clear skies around the delta. fairfield breezy, southwest wind at 20 and half moon bay at 54 this morning. widespread fog. deck taller. not quite as dense. we will be looking at that retreat sooner. that will give us a gradual whamup through the middle of the week and rain chances still in our weekend outlook. here's what's going on. low pressure brought the cloudier, cooler weather yesterday and now it is moving overhead and will be exiting the state today.
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behind it weak high pressure bringing us a brief warm-up, today, tomorrow, thursday and then this other system is holding together and it has some rain associated with it. the moisture is gathering here and it's going to slide down, the tail end of it, through california. we're looking at the chance of rain right on your weekend unfortunately. friday into saturday. south bay you probably will stay dry and today you'll enjoy a lot of sunshine with 70 milpitas, sunnyvale. 76 campbell. look for 69 in redwood city with clouds along the shoreline. san francisco, a partly sunny afternoon. low to mid-70ss north bay. 77 sonoma. near east bay. 57 oakland, 75 castro valley and fremont today with upper 70s from danville to pleasanton and about 80 in antioch. down by the monterey bay, a few degrees warmer for you and that's the trend the next several days starting out with the fog. but then look for increasing
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clouds, slight chance of showers friday into saturday. north bay peninsula, maybe the east bay and then we will be clear for sunday. good morning, frances. >> good morning, lisa, good morning, everyone. brake lines from lone tree to lovage. but the ride through the altamont pass out of tracy is fine. 25 minutes the drive time from 205 to 680. mass transit systems so far reporting no delays but heads up for muni riders. there may be a possible sickout today through friday so keep that in mind. as we go outside, we'll check out the bay bridge toll plaza. still no delays but starting to get crowd county on the upper deck, the bay bridge. waiting for the metering lights to be turned on any minute now. fine from the south bay up to the north bay. 101 great. you can get the latest by going to abc7news.com. you'll find it under the bay area traffic link.
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eric, kristen. >> yes, you can. frances, thank you very much. now coming up on 6:20. >> the mystery over the vanishing oil. a new and troubling theory for where all the oil spilled on the gulf coast, now gone. >> your weight or your life. the diet p
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as governor, he cut waste got rid of the mansion and the limo budgets were balanced. $4 billion in tax cuts. world class schools and universities. clean energy promoted. 1.9 million new jobs created. california was working. i'm jerry brown. california needs major changes.
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we have to live within our means; we have to return power and decision making to the local level-closer to the people and no new taxes without voter approval. jerry brown the knowledge and know-how to get california working again. >> it's 6:23. good tuesday morning to you. in the gulf of mexico, b.p. says it will take crews another couple days to drill the relief well to permanently seal the burnt out oil well but what has happened to all that spilled oil? one says it pulled the cones of
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sediment from the seafloor and found a layer of sludge over 2 inches thick and extending up to 70 miles from the well head. they say fish and worms were snuffed out by the sludge. the government will launch a massive new initiative this week involving dozens of scientists hunting for oil in the water. >> scientists are considering whether to pull a diet pill off the market because it's been linked to heart attacks and strokes. the food and drug has posted a safety review online of the drug ma ridaway. it's been on the market since 1997. the data released late last year showed patients had a higher risk of heart attacks and strokes. the fda will ask outside experts whether to do the same. >> the san francisco giants expecting a capacity crowd tonight against the los angeles dodgers and help the victims of the san bruno fire. the team is donating $3 of every ticket sold at at&t park to a
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victims fund. s giants are in a tie with the padres. they will honor the victims in a pregame ceremony and help collect donations from fans who attend the game. >> 6:25 now. still ahead at 6:30. why critics are warning the san bruno fire may be just one of many disasters on the horizon related to the nation's aging infrastructure. >> a new look at the moment the blast happened. >> and we'll continue to bring you the very latest on our breaking news. the release of imprisoned u.s. berkeley hiker sr. shored. the big questions even after her release. >> why should customers have to possibly foot the bill if pg&e's responsible for the san bruno gas explosion. we'll explain that it's a new bill that could require those customers to pay. more on this up ahead. >> 35-minute delays at sfo this morning due to the low clouds.
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everyone waking up to gray skies but sunny and slightly warmer around the bay. 83 yosemite. your full forecast coming up. >> metering lights now on so here's a live shot bay bridge toll plaza backed up towards
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>> closed captioning brought to you by mancini sleepworld.
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>> live look at nasdaq. mark the trading day. there it is. stock futures rose overnight after a new report this morning showed that august retail sales rose more than expected. the commerce department says retail sales rose four tenths of 1% in august, slightly better than the .3 of 1% that was forecast. how the markets are following that, we'll follow up or down. a live report from the new york stock exchange in about 15 minutes or so. >> let's begin with the latest on breaking news we've been following all morning. imprisoned american hiker and cal graduate sarah short has been released from an iranian prison. jenelle wang joins us live with the very latest. >> sarah was just released in the past hour or so. her friends and family say they expected something to happen but news of her immediate release basically came out of the blue. short now at a swiss embassy in iran which hemmed the u.s. negotiate her release. a judge decided to release her
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because of her medical condition. her mother says the 32-year-old has a precancerous cervical condition and a lump in her breast that has gone untreated. iran demanded $500,000 bail and a chief prosecutor said a bail was paid. >> the money was paid and the release order and ms. short was simply set free and she can leave iran if she wants to. >> sarah's fiance shane bauer and best friend josh patal are still in prison in iran. their detention extended two more months. the berkeley graduates were captured in july 2009 after crossing the board enbetween northern iraq and iran. iran accuses them of spying and illegally entering the country. the family insists they were hiking and crossed the border accidentally. we'll be following the story. but great news, sarah has been released from an iranian prison.
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>> jenelle, thank you very much. just about 6:32 now. back here in the bay area, san bruno fire victims are getting reassurance that their neighborhood is safe and some are being told they're able to go home. others have no homes left to go home to. for a dozen, the first chance they gotto see what was left of their houseless came after a bus tour. it's still too dangerous to allow them to go on their red-tagged properties. the families with homes still standing want to know everything possible is being done so it won't happen again. >> we know there are other pipelines in the area. i want to make sure they are following up on all the safety features -- >> we're going to do everything in our power to oversee the risk management practices of pg&e and to make sure that they do all the inspections that are required. >> pg&e and crews have been working to restore gas and electrical service plus
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inspecting transmission lines. 42 homes in the area don't have gas or power. pg&e has no estimate when service might be restored to them. >> pg&e reportedly has $1 billion in insurances to pay claims from this disaster. but customers will be stuck for a bill for future disasters if a bill makes it through the state's public utilities commission. theresa garcia is live in san bruno to tell us about this. >> you're right. pg&e said it has about a billion dollars of coverage and saying most of the costs will probably be covered. but if it is not and this bill passes, the customers could fill the gap like it or not and this actually could include the san bruno fire. what's happening today is that the state regulators will begin reviewing this proposal that would require customers to pay all the costs of a fire that exceed the utility's insurance company. it allows utilities request a disaster rate increase but right now the public utilities
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commission can veto the request and force shareholders to pay the bill. pg&e is backing this proposal which was first introduced last year by san diego gas and will be -- and electric. that utility company, pg&e and others say this change is needed because disaster insurance is becoming more expensive and difficult to get; for example, the san diego utilities wildfire insurance premiums increased more than 300% after the 2007 fires. so if this new proposal actually passes with the public, it would also allow utilities to charge the customers for past fires which does include this one here in san bruno. now, of course, you've got opponents saying this financial burden should be placed on the shoulders of the utility shareholders, not the rate pairs. there's also the fobt could increase risk by making the utilities having less incentive to maintain safe conditions out here. live in san bruno, theresa garcia, abc 7 news.
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>> theresa, thank you very much. experts are warning the pipe explosion may be the latest example of a growing risk created by ailing infrastructure nationwide. utilities have been under increasing pressure to better inspect and replace aging pipes, many laid down years before sprawling communities were built over the tops of them. the pipe in san bruno was 50 years old and that's about the life expectancy for steel pipes. the government largely leaves it up to companies to do the inspections. regulators warn that thousands of gas pipelines nationwide are facing the same risk. federal regulators have reported 2,840 significant gas pipeline accidents since 1990. more than a third caused death or serious injuries. in 2002, congress passed the first law to inspect utilities running through heavily populated areas. since then more than 3,000 problems were identified.
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we're also getting a new look at the moment of the san bruno explosion. this is the way it looked to people a block away. this is surveillance video from a gas station at the corner of san bruno avenue and glenview drive. you can see a woman running from the flames holding a baby. and in this clip you can see the first fireball erupt. another blast that appears to launch some sort of projectile through the air. take another look. you can see a dark object shooting out of the fire to the right of the spring around the camera's view. across the street, this is how it looked at the market on san bruno avenue. shoppers feel the blast first, then chaos erupts as they literally run for their lives. one took a hard fall as he fell into the door. >> here's one sent to us at
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youreport@kgo-tv.com. a san bruno police officer and firefighter raising an american flag at the scene of the explosion at fairmont drive. they attached the flag to a pole there. we are told it will stay in place until everyone comes home. >> 6:37 now. today san francisco supervisors will vote on paying extra on a case of a gallon of beer sold. the fee would be a dollar for a gallon of wine sold and $3.20 for gallon of hard liquor. the cost would be passed along to customers. officials believe the fee would raise $16 million a year to help reimburse the city for medical care, drunk driving arrests, treatment programs and other alcohol-related services. >> 6:37. missed september. where is that indian summer we always have. >> where's any summer this summer?
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>> right over into fall. kind of, sort of. we have a fall-like weekend forecast but between now and then we warm it up just a little. good morning, oakland, 57 for you. 52 concord. low clouds and fog extends to our inland valleys so starting out with gray skies. a gradual warm-up today, not much. on the order of a couple degrees through the middle of the week and increasing clouds with a chance of showers mainly in the north bay friday and saturday. here's the way it looks today. you saw plenty of 60s yesterday in the north bay. more 70s today and those 80s trying to nudge into our east bay valley. so subtle changes from the coast as this area of low pressure heads inland. behind it getting a brief, weak ridge that's going to build into the state. that means a modest warm-up until this next system wants to swing through for the weekend. temperatures mainly in the 60s around the bay. so mid-70s for the peninsula and south bay with upper 70s inland.
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maybe near 80 in our warmest inland valleys. that trend continues until friday. good morning, frances. >> good morning, lisa, good morning, everyone. nothing to complain about. pretty quiet. a few minor accidents but nothing to slow you down. a ten minute right to the caldecott tunnel. berkeley, although more crowded the drive time 20 minutes from the carquinez bridge to the maze. an accident fairfield westbound 80 near american canyon but that's off to the shoulder as well. bay bridge toll plaza. the metering lights were turned on. when the metering lights get turned on you see the fas trak lanes blacked up first. the san mateo bridge next. it's fine here. westbound, eastbound light into hayward. in the south bay we check out highway 87 for you. that's northbound traffic moving up towards the airport. 101 and 280 still fine at this point. millbrae 101 also looking good
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for drivers making their way northbound up into san francisco. just one more shot. north bay! all is well as you make your way southbound through san rafael. eric, kristen. >> frances, thanks. it's 6:40. >> trading's underway on wall street. a live report from the new york stock exchange straight ahead but first up a live look at the big board. we see the dow is currently off 27 points. >> the northern california county ready to wage in on a new battle for smart meters today. >> a bay area restaurant goes out with a wom whimper or whisp instead of a bang. >> chaos and confusion as first responders battle much more than a water shortage. a water shortage. here firsthand the battltltltltl
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barbara boxer. she fought to get our veterans the first full combat care center in california. her after school law's keeping a million kids off the street and out of gangs. and she's fighting every day to create new jobs. boxer: i'm working to make california the leader in clean energy, to jump-start our small businesses with tax credits and loans, to create thousands more california jobs. i'm barbara boxer and i approve this message because i want to see the words "made in america" again.
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♪ good tuesday morning. some minor delays at sfo on arriving flights of about 35 minutes. slow clouds and fog to start and sunny and slightly warmer afternoon. locally 90 in fresno, warm there. southern sierra, 83. 70 the northern sierra. kristen. >> breaking news from san francisco bay. right now the coast guard is wrapping up a water rescue just before 6:00 this morning. rescue boats were called out after a 25-foot pleasure boat hit a rock wall and ejected a boater near the richmond marina that was injured. the coast guard rescue boat managed to get all four people on that boat safely to the
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richmond marina and now being transported to a local hospital. no word yet how serious the injuries are after the crash. >> we have seen the dramatic pictures from the san bruno explosion and fire. this morning we are hearing as the frantic moments unfold for the first responders. abc 7's jenelle wang joins us with the dispatch tapes surrounding this tragedy. jenelle? >> some of the first reports of the san bruno explosion came from pilots flying over san francisco international airport. within minutes firefighters were on scene and realized they were facing their biggest job ever. >> we have possibly several blocks on fire at this time! >> as firefighters pull on scene, they instantly realize this is a disaster. >> fourth alarm to this. appears that we have a plane down in a neighborhood. multiple structures on fire and we have a fireball still coming out. >> for nearly an hour crews
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operate under the assumption a commercial airliner has crashed and vehicles continue to arrive. >> we have no water on the hydrant! >> copy that. >> engine 38. go on. >> we think we've got a broken water main. we need it from the corner or san bruno avenue. >> leaving a message to command, we have an active hydrant at claremont and concord. also patient with severe burns at 1500 block. >> firefighters accurately pinpoints the cause. >> this is north branch on 31. go. >> it does not appear it's an aircraft. it's some sort of natural gas explosion. >> as minutes pass, many dramatic moments continue to unfold. >> be advised reports of
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occupants trapped in 1651 claremont. >> this is a natural gas leak and explosion. multiple structures, multiple vehicles. not as large an area as we originally thought. >> if you'd like to hear more of those dispatch calls, we posted them on our website, abc7news.com. click on the link called "see it on tv." firefighters from basically every city in the area, daly city, south san francisco, as far as as mendocino and lake county responded to this explosion. >> jenelle, thank you very much. it's 6:47. >> beginning to look a little more like christmas for the nation's retailers. >> it's september, you guys! jane king joins us live from the new york stock exchange with our "moneyscope" report. already thinkin' ahead, jane. >> hey, eric, kristen! the retailers, i don't think they ever don't think about the holidays. we have a lot of tax-free
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holidays in more than a dozen states last month. all helping the retail do better. auto sales though, they were pretty lousy. if you take that out, the commerce department, resale gaped twice as much as economists thought. consumerer electronics retailer reporting a big gain in profit. that's thanks to sales overseas mostly. a weakness in stocks overall. we've got the dow, s & p and nasdaq moving back from yesterday. and the bloomberg silicon valley index, it's actually pretty strong. intel doing a little investing. the santa clara-based chip maker announcing its investment arm putting $40 million into two different software developers. experts in cloud computing and the fourth company makes software used by companies making chips used by mobile web and multimedia. if you look for plans what intel
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has up its sleeve, there's that for you. on facebook.com, be careful what you post about the your travel plans. burglars are using facebook.com and other net working sides to friend people who indicate they won't be home a certain time. for information what to divulge online, check out a website called please rob me. actually a lot of advice there. don't mention when your house is empty, don't talk about how annoying it is when alarm systems don't work. use common sense, always helpful. >> interesting name for that site. jane, thank you very much. >> supervisors are deciding whether to put a hold on the installation of anymore pg&e smart meters. a vote will be taken on a resolution for a moratorium the end of the year. only the unincorporated areas of the county.
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they have questions about the radiation admitted by smart meters. they want a team to study the data and have pg&e pay for it. >> 6:50 is our time. a warm-up in our future. >> just a little and depends where you are. very gray. >> where i am a little warm-up coming. >> you do. parts of the peninsula, east bay valley, the sun's gonna come out sooner. a live look from our roof camera. mount tam, beautiful shots. a couple of minutes ago, ten minutes ago. we're looking at warmer temperatures in our north bay valleys for sure. right now 55 san francisco, 53 menlo park with clear conditions around the delta this morning. our highlights, low clouds and fog spread across the bay overnight while you were sleeping. we will clear out 10:00, 11:00 instead of 12:00 like yesterday.
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brings us to a gradual warm-up today, tomorrow into thursday. rain chances looking likely for parts of the bay area over the early part of the weekend. the tropical pressure overhead yesterday bringing us the clouds, the much cooler conditions heading out of here. behind it brief ridge builds up around the state so that's going to bring the temperatures up maybe 3, 5 degrees in some areas. but along the coast, san francisco, you're not gonna notice much of a change. by the early part of the weekend, this next area of low pressure headed to the south and east. it's gonna swing on through. right now scattering a lot of moisture and whether or not it brings rain. we have to fine tune that as we get closer to the weekend. definitely a possibility from friday into seniority. mid-70s san jose. up a few degrees, about three degrees warmer today in palo alto and redwood city. highs upper 60s to low 70s.
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san francisco 62 today, 77 sonoma. mid to upper 70s here in the north bay. low 60s oakland today. 75 castro valley and fremont. 79 pittsburgh. the monterey bay, a few degrees of warming. that's the trend at least through thursday. good morning, frances. >> so quiet on the roads and mass transit reporting no delays. a heads up for muni riders. there's a rumored sick-out that may be possible today through friday. officials saying they're not expecting it but they are prepared for backup plans just in case it happens. here are the slowest drive times. westbound 4 out of antioch, a crawl. lone tree way 25 minutes. and the approximate nimitz slowing, southbound 880 to 238. brake lights 92 and a 15 minute drive. backing up the bay bridge toll
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plaza. heading towards the golden gate bridge, the drive time is 20 minutes southbound from novato to san francisco. we'll also check out 101 for you in millbrae. so far looking good on the peninsula and the south bay. you can get traffic information at abc7news.com. just click on the bay area traffic link. eric? >> frances, thank you. 6:53. gubernatorial candidate jerry brown is apologizing for taking a swipe at fellow democratic and former president bill clinton over his relationship with monica lewinsky. it came a day after brown claimed his republican rival meg whitman is using footage from the 1992 presidential primary campaign out of context to lie about brown in a current campaign ad. on a video posted on time magazine's website sunday brown said clinton's a nice guy but who always said he always told the truth.
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brown went on to say there's the whole story about did he or didn't he. brown says it was wrong for him to joke about that. >> closed its location at 15th street at midnight. while the restaurant went from serving 30 people a day to 600 thanks to appearances on travel channel and magazines and famous sandwiches with that dirty sauce, that's when neighbors complained about long lines and noise and trash. resulted in them being evicted from the san francisco shore. a new shop just opened on the stanford campus and there are plans for other locations in the bay area. >> i like the sound of that dirty sauce. when you say it, sounds good. 6:54. >> some of the residents who lost homes in the san bruno fire say they're nervous about going back to the neighborhood. terry mcsweeney live in the neighborhood with more. terry?
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terry, you're in the crestmore area. >> yes, i am. can you hear me? >> yep. we gotcha. >> all right. more and more questions for pg&e and ely elected officials. especially last night's meeting. a couple hundred people turning out for the town hall meeting at the church of the high lands. the people were asking questions such as i've got a home to go back to and you say it's safe but we don't think it is. jackie spear was there to offer assurances but some say the problem is still there, it hasn't gone away. some people have no homes to return to. they went through the neighborhood, looking at homes. some red-tagged for demolition. some already demolished by the natural gas explosion and resulting fire. the pipe that blew is 50 years old and the most current technology, accurate way of inspecting those pipes is not going to work in a pipe that
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old. also it has a number of curves in it. that prohibits the device from getting in there and doing its work. at the core of the questions last night, pg&e, did they know there were gas leaks out there. people say for weeks they smelled gas in that neighborhood. pg&e says they received no reports of such. >> terry, thanks a lot. another top story, a jailed american hiker in iran is on her way to the swiss embassy after being released from prison about an hour ago. sarah shore paid a half million dollars bail money and was ordered released by an iran january judge. short's family says the grad has indeed left prison. iran's judiciary says her fiancee and best friend will remain jailed for at least two more months. >> good news. 6:57. before we go, let's check with lisa one more time and see if we see the sun a little earlier. >> we're between weather
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systems. a brief warm-up today, tomorrow into thursday, then the next system headed our way friday, saturday, we believe giving us a slight chance of showers. 67 oakland, 70 palo alto. a little warm-up in fremont at 75. near 80 in antioch. temperatures coming up maybe 2 or 3 degrees in monterey. we'll gain a couple degrees each and every day. increase the clouds friday with a slight chance of showers through saturday. frances. >> lisa, final check. bay bridge toll plaza backed up to the 880 overcrossing. a motorcycle accident on westbound 4 past summersville. it's in the left lane so this could cause traffic to even slow down a bit more out of antioch. already jammed. also a new accident in san bruno, southbound 280. five cars involved but they're saying they're all on the shoulder at this point. >> frances, thank you very much. >> we'll be back with a local >> we'll be back with a local update at
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as governor, he cut waste got rid of the mansion and the limo budgets were balanced. $4 billion in tax cuts. world class schools and universities. clean energy promoted. 1.9 million new jobs created. california was working. i'm jerry brown. california needs major changes. we have to live within our means; we have to return power and decision making to the local level-closer to the people and no new taxes without voter approval. jerry brown the knowledge and know-how to get california working again.
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